From Post to Pillar
God-Houses and Social Fields in Nineteenth-Century Rarotonga
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2390890 |
|---|---|
| Authors | J Sissons (0000-0001-5761-0211, Victoria University of Wellington, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2007 |
| Volume | 12 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 47-63 |
| Publication date | 2007-03-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Material Culture (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1359-1835 • E-ISSN: 1460-3586 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1177/1359183507074561 |
| OpenAlex | W2029324187 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 8 |
| References cited | 9 |
The establishment of Christianity in Rarotonga, Cook Islands, was as much a material process of indigenization as it was a local appropriation of foreign ideas. In this article I argue that the introduction of Christianity to Rarotonga in the 1820s entailed the creation of two competing social fields, one materialized through churches and the other materialized through marae (ceremonial enclosures with god-houses in which were stored wrapped wooden poles, representing divine ancestors). The argument for regarding churches and marae as materializations of social relations is developed against Gell's analysis, in Art and Agency, of Maori meeting houses in which he proposes that we approach such structures as indexes of agency
Agency (philosophy · Appropriation · Archaeology · Argument (complex analysis · Christianity · Epistemology · Indigenization · Pillar · Social science · Sociology · Anthropology · Engineering · History · Island Studies and Pacific Affairs · Pacific and Southeast Asian Studies · Philosophy
| Unique citing works | 8 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,44 |
| Citation span | 2008 - 2013 (6) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 8 |